links for 2009-07-09

The total eclipse begins at local dawn, 00:51:17 UT on July 22 in the Arabian Sea, just off the coast of India. The path is already over 200km wide here, and the eclipse will last 3 minutes 30 seconds. It crosses over central India, and passes between Nepal and Bangladesh, clips Bhutan and Myanmar, and then enters China. It crosses right over China to the coast around Hangzhou, at around 01:40 UT. By this time the path width is up to 249km, and the total eclipse lasts 5 minutes 56 seconds on the centreline.

All but invisible in Latin America a decade ago, China now is building cars in Uruguay, donating a soccer stadium to Costa Rica and lending $10 billion to Brazil's biggest oil company.

It's supplanted the United States to become the biggest trading partner with Brazil, South America's biggest economy.

Director of Princeton U Press makes the case that books are the best medium to deliver "hard ideas." Perhaps some good strategies here for uni presses, but not a word in the way of justifying the central assertion.